Adrift (2018)

I’m a sucker for survival stories. Especially stories of people lost at sea who are forced to adapt, improvise, and apply their navigational and nautical skills to survive. 2018’s Adrift is a movie that tells such a story. An added bonus is that it’s true. (Well, it’s based on a true story. I’m not exactly sure how much narrative license it takes. Honestly, I don’t want to know.)

23-year-old Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley) drifts from country to country taking odd jobs as she goes. While in Tahiti, she meets 34-year-old Richard Sharp (Sam Claflin.) The pair quickly find themselves very much in love and plan a trip to Japan together. A chance run-in with an older couple — who know Richard is a skilled sailor — leads to a job opportunity. The couple hire Richard to take their luxury sailboat from Tahiti to San Diego. They’ll pay him $10,000 and pay for his flight back to Tahiti. He convinces them to throw in an extra ticket for Tami and accepts the job.

On their voyage, the pair collide with Hurricane Raymond and the yacht is severely damaged. Tami is knocked unconscious and Richard is thrown overboard. And that’s where the movie starts. We join Tami at the moment she regains consciousness. Using a non-linear narrative, the film reassembles the events that led to her being in this desperate situation.

With a quick glance at the film’s promotional materials, Adrift might appear to be a love story that takes place at sea. While it does chronicle the romantic aspects of their relationship, the film focuses much more on the couple’s eventual plight. Establishing a strong bond between the characters becomes necessary and leads to one of the film’s few flaws. But, I’ll get to that in a moment.

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur (Beast,) the movie features some harrowing special effects sequences to document the wrath of the storm. Cinematographer Robert Richardson (Wag the Dog) emphasizes the frailty of the 44-foot-yacht against the massive Pacific Ocean through stunning aerial shots. It’s clear that a majority of the film was shot on the open ocean. Despite the inherent difficulty of doing so, Kormákur and Richardson have done a stellar job masking the fact that a film crew was just off-camera. (Unlike 2015’s In the Heart of the Sea, which always looked like it was taking place on a soundstage with a computer-generated ocean. Because it was.)

There’s a point in the third act where the script makes a reveal that might surprise some less attentive viewers (or those that don’t know the real story.) While I had no issues with the actual plot twist, I didn’t like that the script (or, possibly, the editor) doesn’t trust the audience to understand what has happened. I don’t want to say any more as I don’t want to spoil anything. However, a powerful performance from Shailene Woodley makes it easier to forgive the filmmakers’ lack of faith in the viewer.

While the romantic scenes feel a bit corny, they’re bearable thanks to the charismatic leads. The script even calls attention to this when Tami grimaces as Richard delivers the line, “I sailed half the world to find you.” Nevertheless, I allowed myself to be pulled into the gripping survival story. Forgiving some of the tropey bits might be necessary to get where the script wants to take you. With Adrift, it’s a ride worth taking.